You have developers who want to own the pipeline
Apify's platform is built for people who write and schedule scrapers. If you have engineers who will read run logs and tune selectors, a managed service puts a layer between them and the work.
Head to head
UK Data Services vs Apify
Apify is a platform where you run scrapers, mostly ready-made ones from its Store. We build and run the scraper for you and send you checked data. If you have developers and want to own the pipeline, Apify is the better buy. If you want the data and have nobody to write code, we are. This page sets out both sides with real prices, including the jobs we would hand to Apify.
The short answer
They are not the same kind of product
Apify is a scraping platform and marketplace. You pick a ready-made scraper (an Actor) from its Store or write your own, run it on Apify's cloud, and pay for the compute and proxies it uses, or a per-result fee set by the Actor's author. Apify also offers custom scraping solutions to larger customers, but it does not publish a price for that.
UK Data Services only does the managed part. We scope the job, build the scraper, run it on a schedule, repair it when the site changes, check the output and send you a file or a feed. There is no console to log into and no usage meter. If you are weighing Apify against us, you are really choosing whether somebody on your side runs scrapers at all.
Choose Apify
Apify is the better choice when
A ready-made Actor already does your job
Apify's Store lists more than 114,000 ready-made Actors. For a well-known site such as a social network or a global marketplace, one probably exists, and Apify prices several at a few dollars per 1,000 results. Paying that is cheaper than commissioning a build.
You want to start this afternoon without talking to anyone
Apify's free plan includes $5 of usage a month with no card required. We quote after looking at your sources, which takes a day or two.
You need to scale across many sites and countries yourself
Apify's Business plan allows 256 concurrent runs and 512 GB of memory, with residential proxies at $7 per GB. That is infrastructure for a team running scraping as a core activity.
You want a third-party security attestation
Apify displays a SOC 2 badge and a GDPR badge on its site. We are ICO-registered and work under NDA as standard, but we hold no SOC 2 or ISO certification. If your procurement team requires one, that is a real difference and we will say so.
Scraping is your core product
If the data is what you sell and you will collect it for years, you want the platform in your own hands. Buy the platform and build the team.
Choose us
We are the better choice when
Nobody on your side is going to write code
A platform is only cheap if you already employ someone to run it. We hand over a file, and the work of getting to that file is ours.
The job is a handful of UK sites, not a catalogue of global ones
Store Actors are strongest on large international sites. A UK retailer, a regulator's register or a trade body's member list is far less likely to have a maintained Actor. A one-site starter extract from us is £150 at a fixed price, with the sample free and the price agreed before we begin.
You want competitor prices matched to your own range
Our most requested job: your SKUs lined up against competitor products and prices in one file, not a stream of raw results you still have to match. See the competitor price snapshot.
You want a fixed figure rather than a meter
Usage pricing means a site adding bot protection moves you from a cheap run to an expensive one, and Actors charge by event or by compute. We quote the job, absorb that variance, and fix layout breakages on maintained scrapers at no extra charge.
You may have to defend the numbers later
Each scraper follows fixed rules written for its source, so the same page gives the same output every time. On managed programmes every row carries its source URL and capture date.
You want a UK supplier under UK law
We are a UK company (No. 08576932) registered with the ICO (ZC152935), invoicing in sterling, and we check each source's terms and robots rules before collecting.
Side by side
How we compare
Apify figures are taken from its own published pricing, contact and about pages, read on 9 November 2026. Apify shows prices with a dollar sign and does not state a currency code, so they are shown as published. Check apify.com/pricing before relying on them.
| Apify platform | Apify custom solutions | UK Data Services | |
|---|---|---|---|
| What you buy | Compute and proxies to run Actors you pick or write | Scraping built by Apify's team (listed as a custom plan) | A data file or feed we build and deliver |
| Who writes the scraper | You, or the Actor's author in Apify Store | Apify | We do |
| Entry price | Free plan with $5 of usage a month. Starter $19, Scale $199, Business $999 a month, each including usage of the same value. Compute $0.20 to $0.13 per unit depending on plan | Not published; contact Apify | £150 one-off for a one-site starter extract. Maintained from £60 a month per site (monthly), £120 (weekly), £350 (daily) |
| Store Actor pricing | Set by each Actor. Most use pay per event; one published example is $2.30 per 1,000 results | Not applicable | Not applicable |
| Proxies | Residential from $7 to $8 per GB depending on plan | Not published | Included in our price |
| Try before you buy | Free plan, no card required | Free demo on request | Free sample of your agreed fields, with a fixed quote alongside it |
| When a site changes | You or the Actor's author fix the scraper | Handled by Apify under the custom plan | We fix it, included on maintained scrapers |
| SKU matching to your range | You build it | Not published | Included in price-monitoring work |
| Security standard | Displays SOC 2 and GDPR badges | Same | ICO registered (ZC152935), NDA as standard, no SOC 2 or ISO certification |
| Who you contract with | Apify Technologies s.r.o., Prague, Czech Republic, prices shown in dollars | Same | UK Data Services, a UK company (No. 08576932), invoicing in sterling |
Worked example
Where the money actually lands
Take a common job: daily prices and stock from six UK retailer sites, around 4,000 product pages each, matched to a 3,000-SKU range. That is roughly 720,000 page fetches a month.
On Apify there is no single price for this, and we will not invent one. If a maintained Actor exists for a site, you pay its per-result fee. If not, someone writes six scrapers, pays Apify for the compute and proxies they use, and keeps them working. The plans give the shape of it: Scale at $199 a month includes $199 of usage at $0.16 per compute unit, and Business at $999 a month brings that to $0.13. Those are the platform bills. The developer time to build, monitor and repair six retailer scrapers, and the matching to your SKUs, is on top.
From us, the same job is six maintained daily scrapers plus matching, quoted as one monthly figure in the £750 to £2,500 range depending on how hard the sites defend themselves. Breakages are ours to fix. The output is one file with your SKUs against their prices.
Reverse the job and the answer reverses. A well-known international site with a good Actor, a few thousand results a month, is a few dollars on Apify and not worth a quote from us. Use our cost calculator for a figure on your own job.
Small businesses
If you are a UK small business or online shop
Most UK small businesses we speak to want one thing: a spreadsheet of what competitors charge, or a list of leads from a handful of sites, delivered on a schedule. Apify can do that if someone in the business, or a freelancer, will set up and maintain the scrapers. If that person does not exist, the platform fee is the smaller part of the cost. A free sample from us shows exactly what you would receive before you spend anything.
The facts
What we are
A small UK data extraction company, trading since 2013, with more than 500 projects delivered. On a long-running e-commerce price-monitoring job covering about 12,000 SKUs across 9 retailer sites, measured accuracy is 99.8%. We work under NDA as standard and never name clients in our marketing. For a public example of our work, see the complete dataset of every UK CMA case. For the wider version of this question, see when to choose UK Data Services, or the equivalent comparison with Bright Data.
Questions
Common questions
Is UK Data Services cheaper than Apify?
For a small number of UK sites, usually yes in total cost, because our entry prices are £150 one-off or £60 a month per site and you need no developer. On the platform bill alone, no: Apify's plans start at $0 and $19 a month. The honest answer depends on whether you already have someone to build and maintain the scrapers.
Which is better for a UK small business?
Us, in most cases, and not because we are better engineers. A small business rarely has a developer free to build and maintain scrapers, and a platform bills for runs whether or not anyone turns the output into usable data. If you do have in-house developers, compare Apify's plans against the cost of our maintained plans directly.
Do you use Apify behind the scenes?
No. We run our own extraction and our own infrastructure, which is why we can quote a fixed monthly figure rather than passing a usage meter through to you.
We already use Apify Actors. Can you take over?
Yes. Send the fields and sources you receive today and we will reproduce them as a free sample so you can compare output before changing anything. We do not need access to your Apify account.
What does Apify do that you do not?
A marketplace of ready-made scrapers for popular sites, a self-serve free plan with no scoping call, cloud infrastructure for scrapers your own team writes, and displayed SOC 2 and GDPR badges. For well-served international sites and for teams that want to run their own scrapers, Apify is the right supplier and we will tell you so.
Are the Apify prices on this page current?
They were read from Apify's published pricing, contact and about pages on 9 November 2026 and are shown as published, without a currency code, because Apify does not state one. Vendors change prices; check apify.com before relying on any figure here.
See your data before you decide
Send us the websites and the fields you need. We will reply with a free sample and a fixed quote, or tell you plainly that Apify is the better fit for the job.